10 foreign players to feature in Pak Super Kabaddi League

KARACHI: As many as ten foreign players will be part of the First Super Kabaddi League (SKL) which will explode into action at Lahore from May 1.

The ten franchises picked their ten-member squads for the first ever professional league of the country from a draft of 126 players which also had players from Iran, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Kenya, Japan and Malaysia. The maximum purchase limit of a player had been kept as Rs1.5million.

The league will last till May 10 and is expected to attract a huge crowd as Punjab is the hub of kabaddi. According to the Strawberry Sports Management, which is organising the league, that each side picked ten players each, two from Platinum seven from Gold and one from foreign category.

The organisers said that Peshawar Haiders, Kashmir Janbaz, Gujrat Warriors, Sahiwal Bulls, Karachi Zoorawar, Islamabad All Stars, Faisalabad Sheerdil, Lahore Thunders, Gwadar Bahadurs and Multan Sikandar will be vying for the crown. The 126 players, who were part of the draft, had been divided into three categories with 20 players in the Platinum, 90 Gold and 16 players in foreign category. In foreign category five players from Iran, two each from Sri Lanka, Iraq, Kenya, Bangladesh and Malaysia while one player from Japan were present. As per procedure each team had to pick ten players, two in Platinum, seven in Gold and one in foreign category.

The organisers said that initially coaches were picked through lucky draw. And under the same result Zahid Shaheed (Peshawar), Adnan Arshad (Kashmir), Rahat Maqsood (Gujrat), Muhammad Shafiq (Sahiwal), Ghulam Muhammad (Karachi), Saifullah (Islamabad), Mubashir Iqbal (Faisalabad), Iqrar Hussain (Lahore), Badshah Gul (Gawadar), Ghulam Ali Butt (Multan) would perform their duties with their respective outfits.

After the selection of coaches each team management started picking their players from the draft for their respective teams.The kits were also introduced, the organisers said.

Squads: Faisalabad: Nasir Ali, Abrar Khan (platinum), Azam Shah, Haider Ali, Rashid Mehboob, Sharafat Ali, Abid Hussain, Ahmed, Waseem Akram (Gold) and Ranedo Chamara (Sri Lanka) from foreign category.

Gujrat: Muhammad Imran, Tehseenullah (Platinum), Waqar Ali, Dildar Ahmed, Muhammad Tariq, Rai Mubashir Ali, Asad Ali, Shabbir Ullah, Saif Ullah (Gold), Muhammad Baba Ali (Iran) from foreign category.

Gwadar: Abrar Hussain, Ali Shan (platinum), Waqar Aslam, Rehman Ali, Adil Hussain, Shoaib Mumtaz, Ejaz Masih, Bilal Khan, Shahbaz Ali (Gold), Malanda Chatoranga (Sri Lanka) from foreign category.

Karachi: Muhammad Nadeem, Wajid Ali (platinum), Muhammad Mushahid, Abdul Manan, Muhammad Saleem, Shabbir Ahmed, Abbas Ali, Saif-ul-Malook, Adeel Azam (gold), Masood Karim (Bangladesh).

Multan: Waseem Sajjad, Arsalan Ahmed (Platinum), Sabir Ali, Abdul Mukhtar, Waqas Hussain, Juniad Sarwar, Muhammad Aqeel, Muhammad Mustafa Bijli, Amjad Ali (Gold), and Jabir Hamati (Iran). Sahiwal: Muhammad Nisar, Sajjad Shoukat (Platinum), Waqas Ali, Hasan Ali, Amir Mehmood, Afzal Ali, FaizanRiaz, Abid Hussain, Rafiq (Gold), Saboj (Bangladesh). Peshawar: Ikhlaq Hussain, Usman Zada (Platinum), Qaiser Abbas, Subhan Aslam, Usman Khalid, M Yousuf, M Yaseen, Abdul Rehman, Imran Ali (Gold) and Milad Sherhak (Iran). Islamabad: M Rizwan, M Arshad (Platinum), Zahid Nawaz, Hasan Raza, Shahid Iqbal, Muhammad Zeeshan, Faisal Nadeem, Asif Jaja, Zain Ali (Gold), and Farhad Nagi (Iran). Lahore: Mudasir Shah, M Sufyan (platinum), Ahsan Mehmood, Atif Suhail, M Afzal, M Ali, M Mujahid, M Abid, Mazhar Iqbal (Gold), Murtaza Jeelam (Iran). Kashmir: Razzaq, Atif Waheed (platinum), Saddam Hussain, Muzammil Hussain, Sajjad Ahmed, Asim Hanif, Tariq Munir, Tauheed Shifa, Sehram Ali (Gold), Mouglen (Malaysia).